Great Bowling Effort. A match in which the bowlers proved their worth. A special mention about the middle order batsman to ensure that the team reached a defend-able total. Finals against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai is going to be a tough match. And today's performance showed that CSK has 'it' in them to defeat Mumbai before their home crowd.
Positives:
1. Brave Team Selection: It was a brave decision (and a correct decision) to pick 3 spin bowlers in the pitch. Hope they have the same bowling attack for the finals too.
2. We trust in Dougie: Whoever made the decision and put the effort to get Dougie deserves kudos. What a performance from Dougie. Another Australian that Chennai crowd are going to love forever.
3. Ashwin: What a revelation he has been. Hope he repeats this performance in the next match too.
4. Anirudha: Though he has been in and out of the team, he never got a chance to show his potential. Today he showed why he deserved to be picked ahead of other domestic batsman in the team. His little cameo ensured that the team crossed that psychological crucial 140.
5. Badri: Another good performance. Ensured that he did what the team expected of him.
Negatives:
1. Openers - Vijay & Hayden: Another failure... Hayden's performance today showed clearly that he should be dropped for the next match. Time to ask either Anirudha or Hussey or Kemp to open for the next match.
But the best news is that we will see our beloved team playing again this year in Champions League.
Fan's Man of the Match: Dougie. As the commentators pointed out, he is one of the key reason for CSK's revival in the second half of the tournament.
23 comments:
Batting first did the trick, after all !
Go CSK, All the Way.
Brilliant! CSK should be crowned IPL kings on Sunday!
CSK CSK CSK.....
We will get the cup this time......
Come on CSK.....
I ROAR FOR CSK!!!!! :)
Hmmm...For a fleeting moment we might have cursed Dhoni's decision to play first on this dubious track but his assessment of surface and the added pressure of SF got to Gilly. Gilly for once tried an alternate strategy of keeping wickets in hand initially and made a slow start (which failed miserably, though CSK bowled well). This is what pressure can do to you in a big match and thats why I was advocating the theory of batting first. CSK would have also found it difficult chasing a small total on this track.
I will bring Kemp for Hayden and open with Anirudha (or Raina) in the next match. We can bring Morkel 2 down and get on with it. We took our catches while DC dropped a tad too many.
Overall, a fine bowling and fielding performance by CSK. We need to stick to the same strategy and bat first in the next match.
go go for the cup
@ Robin & Reshma,
Agree we need to bring in Kemp instead of haydos. I was worried a bit when I noticed only 2 seamers today and the pitch offered seam. Luckily, the spinners did a great job today. Kemp will bring the seam up option. Little Cheeka's confidence should be sky high now. We can take the gamble of opening with him in the finals.
What's heartening is that the team is peaking well at the right time, unlike RCB who were great initially and slowed down now. IPL could not have asked for a better finals. The most consistent team across all IPLs versus the best team in this year's IPL. More importantly, Sachin vs Dhoni!!!
Replace hayden with kemp..kemp can bowl also...kemp should be allowed to open with vijay..Raina 1 down..And also change the statergy on each quarter of the match...sachin never perform well in pressure matches....so Dhoni has to do more calculations and options to win this trophy..Dhoni deserves it....
Yaayyy!!! We're in the finals for the second time.
Come on Chennai, go for the kill!! Mumbai is too good a team and they are in some great form. Their batsmen are in great from esp., Sachin, Rayudu, Tiwary and Pollard. We have to watch out for these guys.
Also, it's high time Flemmo and Dhoni take a call on Hayden. I still do have faith in Hayden. A man of his stature can just come back to form overnight. It's all up in the mind!! We gotta have at least one opener staying in there for a while. It's upto Hayden to decide whether to stay, or make way for Hussey.
What a fantastic efforts from the superkings to tame the defending champs.Hats off to MSD and bowlers.
I think time is up for Haydos.I was against the dropping him but now we can't afford another failure from him after all this is the finals and Mumbai has Zaheer to make the matter worse for Haydos.
Regarding the bowling line up we simply don't have any other options in pace dept hence it is feasible to play with 3 spinners.But Murli shud bowl in the line of the off stump,I know he didn't give many runs yesterday but he was bowling continuously on the legstump or around batsmen pads.
I will prefer to have Hussey rather than Kemp since we MI has good bowling lineup and Huss has the better technique to handle that.But it's the toss between Huss/Kemp. And let little chikka open the batting with Vijay.yesterday he showed glimpse of his potential.
But one thing is sure to have in the finals that is very good batting pitch.
so team shud be
Little Chikka
Vijay
Raina
Badri
Dhoni
Huss/Kemp
Albie
Douggie
Ashwin
Murli
Jakati
And please send douggie ahead of Ashwin if he is reqd to bat becoz douggie has better power to hit the shots compared to Ashwin.
haha.. Like every chennai fans, am happy too.. :)
LAW OF AVERAGE :) remember ??
just one change.. hayden OUT, Hussey IN / Kemp IN.. he completly lost his midas touch. after 2 drop catches, anyone would've scored atleast 50.. dont know whatz the matter with hayden. maybe this is the last time we see him. who knows..
but after all, give credits to our local boys first
my rating..
1. anirudh..
that 25 changed the game. for sure.
2. raina.
what a fielder for INDIA and csk. he will get the city under 23 success for sure
3. aswin
4. badri
if he was not there, then csk would've been 110 in 20 overs
5. with just 140+ in hand, he moved his coins well.. and bringing murali proved crucial
and last but not the least.
BOLLINGER
well, i dont know wy he was not been picked for T20. if brett lee is out, he wil fill his place...
Overall a good win for us. and finals, well, I dont feel bad even if we lose. after all, we will lose to GOD :)
whhatz ur rating ??
chennai super kings on trending topics in TWITTER :)
http://i43.tinypic.com/2wpikqr.jpg
CSK is in the trending topics of twitter still!! GO CSK GO...
The bizarre part of this edition is that the some teams are given the unfair advantage of playing Semi-Finals and Finals in their backyard.
This not only gives them home support (notional) but also the ability to doctor the pitch to suit their bowling/batting style. I was astonished to read an article from Ray Jennings in Timeofindia today claiming that he would have doctored the pitch in B'lore for SFs.
In what is Chepauk less better than Bangalore or Mumbai ? In fact it is a more secure place than either of both.
It was apalling to see a half-filled stadium for a charged-up semi-finals between the two south indian franchises on thursday. I bet you wouldnt find an empty seat in the stadium for a match between MI and RCB in chennai.
I would rather suggest that we have SF/Finals of next edition in neutral venues like Cuttack/Nagpur or in Eden Gardens (i am pretty sure that KKR wouldnt make to SFs, come what may)
@ Reshama,
lol @ your comment about KKR qualifying for semis.
I would not be surprised if KKR even ceases to exist next year with all the offscreen happenings. Pity such a great concept could easily be destroyed due to greed of a few :(
I agree with you that it was pathetic to see a empty stadium for SFs. I dont think it would have happened in any other stadia in india. The problem is mumbai has had too many games this season, including SF & Finals in 5 days. So cannot expect much big crowd there for non-MI games as there is a overdose of t20 at that center. Also SF move was made last minute. Ppl may have planned for for the last 2 games.
The options IPL had were:
- Chennai is under renovation (i heard cpl of stands were brought down as soon as last league game in chepauk was over). So no chance
- Game at blr was gone the moment those bombs exploded
- Delhi... no more t20s at kotla please
- Cuttack/Dharamshala/Jaipur - too small centres to host high profile games
- Ahmedabad - dry state, no liquor inside stadia... definetely out as all big wigs attending SFs would not like such atmosphere
Eden Gardens/Mohali would have been better bet. I dont know why Modi is so keen on organizing games in maharashtra (surely DC could have made cuttack their home than nagpur/navi).
I' ll suggest following:
SF1 : 1 vs 4 in home ground of 1
SF2 : 2 vs 3 in home ground of 2
Finals: Stadium decided by previous IPL winner. But IPL takes over ground for finals and responsible for pitch, ground conditions, etc.
This give incentive of actually finishing higher in points table. Currently teams only fight for top 4 finish as there is no incentive for finishing 1st.
@all complaining about the empty stadiums,
let us not forget the tickets for the semifinals went for sale just 2 or 3 days before the match begun.. (Thanks to the foolish decision by IPL Organizing team to shift the tournament). So it shows the passion of Mumbaikars to fill the stadium for their home team match.. If the tickets has been on sale 2 weeks before the match, I am sure Semifinals 2 would also had a full stadium..
@ Cub,
Semifinals And finals are decided on the last year ipl positions. Winners get to host next year IPL finals. Runners up get to host IPL Semifinals.
So Bangalore, IPL Runners-up were supposed to host semis and Deccan, IPL Winners supposed to host semis in their home ground - DL Patil Stadium in Mumbai..
I believe finals and the fact that crowds don't turn up in the faraway ground in Hyderabad are the key reasons for Modi shifting Deccan's home ground to Mumbai..
@Robin,
I know the current system of awarding SFs to runnersup. What I dont understand is why it is done so. What incentive does the team finishing on top of league phase have? They are not even sure of qualifying to CLT20.
I'd prefer the following:
a. opening game - alloted to prev year's runners up
b. finals - alloted to prev year's winner
c. SFs - I've mentioned it in previous post. So table toppers have some advantage going into SFs. For finals, its a clean slate for both teams.
Regarding DC's home games in mumbai, I see no point. Mumbai already has an IPL team. What's the point in alloting another stadium in same city? One of DC's catchment area is Orissa. Why not make cuttack home ground for all the games?
@Robin - thanks for the clarification. Didnt know that there was rule determining allotment of venues for SFs / Finals and it wasnt arbitrary (as i thought it was)!
But here again I think its a bit absurd. What if DC had to meet RCB in the SFs ? RCB would have had the first use of this 'advantage' of venue over DC though DC won IPL-2.
Lets see if we have a crowd for tomorrow's play-off for 3rd position (this was originally supposed to be held at mumbai). This will be a clear indicator of whether or not we have people interested in non-mumbai matches.
@Cub im glad you think in the same lines as i do...the semis venue should be either in neutral venues or in the table toppers and the 2nd in the table's home venues.
Mumbai gets too many games. Imagine now CSK beating Mumbai in Mum, would there be any celebrations apart from the sparse yellow jerseys in the crowd?
As Reshma said Kolkata would be an ideal venue tho the wicket gets a little slow.
Kemp should ideally come in fr Hayden tomorrow and let anirudha open with Vijay.
And the good thing abt the semis was also Little Cheeka- Boy he can bat - he should open with Vijay, and we have seen less of him...its tough for others to work him out.
Vijay can pace his innings better, he can easily be the guy who stays till 10 overs and accelerate after the 1st few overs, let the rookie Lil Cheeka exhibit fearless batting.
Haydos- one of CSK's most loved players looks woefully out of form...like Gilchrist was.
The problem now with Hayden is he is not even striking the ball cleanly.
If anirudha can open(2 right handers at crease, but thats ok)..Kemp can fit in into the usual position- after morkel
Let them do whatever they want,make the pitch as them want.We are still gonna beat u mumbai.
I feel here Mumbai will get confused about the preparing the pitch.
If they make pitch batting friendly
we have better batting lineup
If they make slow spinner friendly track we have 3 spinners against their 1.
If they go for pacy track we have bollinger.And in india pitch looses it's pace after half an hour.
if pitch has a good bounce then also we are going to be benefited.
So they will go with the same kindaa pitch as they had in SF against RCB.
But Vijay and Raina should be watchful.The whole world knows abt raina's weakness facing short balls and Zaheer-Malinga are going to target him with the same kindaa stuff.
So best luck CSK.Play like the Superkings.....
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